Don’t Miss These Six Bay Area Concerts in March
March welcomes spring and a blooming music scene as touring musicians emerge from their winter doldrums with local shows at nearby local venues. There’s an eclectic mix to dig into this month; from the final days of Noise Pop Festival to a Mardi Gras street party and cutting-edge Congolese beats.
March 1st – 3rd: Noise Pop @ Various Venues
If you didn’t get a chance to catch any Noise Pop Festival shows at the end of February, there’s still hope. The festival hits its stride through March 3rd with a lineup that spans the spectrum. SF Station is partnering with the festival to present Tourist at Gray Area (March 1st) and festival standout Princess Nokia at UC Theater (March 2nd). Jazz and hip hop heads will dig UK keyboardist Kaamal Williams (March 1st), who crosses genres with his compositions. Fans of Fleet Foxes should check in with the woodsy indie rock vibes of Darlingside (March 2nd) and Daughters (March 3rd) gets heavy on the final night of the festival at the Independent.
March 5th: Jazz Mafia Mardi Gras Parade
If you know what it means to miss New Orleans, join Jazz Mafia for a Mardi Gras party that will traverse San Francisco from Patricia’s Green in Hayes Valley to Brick and Mortar Music Hall. The 20-piece second line is a much-needed Fat Tuesday tradition that delivers a NOLA-style party to the streets of SF. Stick around for Jazz Mafia’s Heaviest Feather at the at 8 pm.
March 10th: Cherry Glazerr @ The Independent
The rock ‘n’ roll power trio is alive and well with Cherry Glazerr. The band returns to SF just after the release of its fourth LP Stuffed & Ready, an introspective follow-up to 2017’s critical and fan favorite Apocalipstick. “With Apocalipstick, I was an over-confident teenager trying to solve the world’s problems” says 22-year-old frontwoman Clementine Creevy in a statement announcing the album. “With Stuffed & Ready, I’m a much more weary and perhaps a more cynical woman who believes you need to figure your own self out first.”
March 14th: The Suffers @ The Independent
If you like your soul, big and brassy, don’t sleep on The Suffers; a 10-piece Texas band that’s bringing its “Gulf Coast Soul” to the Independent for a Thursday night party. There’s plenty to take in as the group swings from retro soul to Latin-infused rhythms and disco funk. It all comes together perfectly behind frontwoman Kam Franklin’s powerful vocals.
March 17th: KOKOKO! @ Public Works
Finding Kinshasa without an assist from Google Maps is a little like trying to define KOKOKO!’s sound. The Congolese group is distinctly African, but not the typical sound you’d find at an Afrobeat party, on the dance floor at Bissap Baobab (RIP, although Little Baobab lives on), or lumped into the lazy music industry catch-all, “world music.” African rhythms and percussion are delivered with improvised instruments created from discarded materials and packaged with elements of dance music and punk for something entirely new.
March 28th: Rubblebucket @ UC Theatre
Rubblebucket delivers fun, globally inspired indie pop, but scratch below the surface and things get complicated. Before the band started creating 2018’s Sun Machine, vocalist Kalmia Traver asked romantic partner and bandmate Alex Toth to move out of their shared living space as an experiment, a month later he proposed. She accepted the proposal, but then the two decided to mutually end their romantic relationship. Somehow the band persisted, an album was made, and they’re ready to share it live with you. See how it all plays out onstage in Berkeley.
Find more live music options with SF Station’s music calendar.
